Corsair Hydro H60 Review

Corsair Hydro Series H60 Introduction:

As processors become more power efficient, it seems that the cooling demands have escalated when it comes time to overclock the CPU and system. Corsair has been on the forefront of providing cooling solutions for the enthusiast with their Hydro series solutions such as the new Corsair H60 High performance Liquid cooling solution that started the wave of self-contained water cooling solutions from a variety of manufacturers.

Over this time Corsair have worked with Asetek and Coolit to deliver not only the first Hydro series self contained liquid cooling solutions, but to improve the designs when and where possible. Here at Overclockersclub we have looked at a good selection of the Corsair Hydro series product stack, including the Corsair Hydro Series H60, H80, and the Corsair Hydro Series H100, which has just seen an upgrade to the H100i. With each generational change the systems have offered improvements to the cooling performance delivered. Examples would be the switch from Asetek to Coolit after the H50 and H70 were delivered that brought along a new pump head/cooling plate design, with the ability to monitor the pump assembly with Corsair's own Link technology.

Able to be installed on just about every current socket type including AMD AM2, AMD AM3, AMD FM1, Intel LGA 1155, Intel LGA 1156, Intel LGA 1366 and Intel LGA 2011, Corsair has made this solution available for the widest audience. As a new design, yet again it will prove interesting to see just how well the engineers at Corsair have done their homework, from the new fan to the new pump head/cold plate assembly. Priced at roughly $82 this new revision carries a price premium over the original H60 of close to $20. The question is how will it perform and will it eliminate the noise concerns seen on the earlier revisions. Let's find out.

Corsair Hydro Series H60 Closer Look:

For this new series Corsair has updated the look of the packaging moving from a black background to a silver background. The front shows the name of the cooler, the sockets it will work with and a picture of the new H60 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler. The back side shows some performance metrics to illustrate the performance differential between Corsair's solution and Intel's own boxed cooler.

Inside the package we can see that Corsair puts a lot of thought into how the assembly is packed to eliminate damage during transit should the box see some rough handling. On top of the packaging materials are a users/installation guide, contact sheet if you have a problem and a product brochure. Diving deeper, the Corsair Hydro Series H60 is wrapped in a bag inside a form-fitted cardboard tray.

Included with the Corsair H60 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler is the mounting hardware and documentation. A user manual, troubleshooting sheet and product guide rounds out the documentation. Installation hardware is included for all current sockets with coverage for both AMD and Intel sockets. The back plate assembly is similar to previous designs, yet the hold-down brackets differ significantly due to the new design.

Past performance has shown that Corsair has delivered a product that can handle the heat. With a new design, pump-head and fan that pushes more airflow, we should see some significant improvements in cooling performance.